Education Service Center named for retired VUSD superintendent.
Photos by Michael Gordon
On September 29 the Ventura Unified School District held a dedication ceremony for the naming of the Trudy Arriaga Education Service Center at the District’s office located at 255. W. Stanley Ave.
The longtime superintendent of the Ventura Unified School District Dr. Trudy Tuttle Arriaga retired after 14 years as superintendent and forty years working for the Ventura school district.
When Trudy was a small child attending Loma Vista Elementary School she would climb into an old oak tree. In later years the tree became sick and had to be cut down. The Facilities Services Department salvaged enough of the tree to fabricate a Memorial Bench in her honor.
Her retirement was just the start of another job in academia as she joined the faculty in the California Lutheran University’s Graduate School of Education where she will serve as the Distinguished Educator in Residence.
Arriaga began working for the Ventura Unified School District in 1975 as a paraeducator. Her journey toward the role of superintendent includes teaching grades three – adult in special education, migrant education, and adult education, as well as serving as an assistant principal, principal, and director of administrative support services. Arriaga is the first woman superintendent of the Ventura Unified School District, the third largest district in the county.
